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Each month, Scuba Symphony runs a competition on Facebook with a different theme. For the month of April, the theme was Lionfish.

This is the first time Viki entered the competition so she is delighted to have won first time round!

This is a particularly good competition to enter as you must make a donation to Project Aware in order to have your entry accepted.

Founded 1989, Project AWARE was created by a group of environmental advocates at the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI), who were concerned about emerging threats to the underwater world. In 1992 Project AWARE Foundation became a separate nonprofit organization.

Project AWARE Foundation works in partnership with divers and water enthusiasts to combat challenges facing underwater environments. Project AWARE and dedicated volunteers are committed to conservation initiatives including:

• Underwater Cleanups and Marine Debris Prevention
• Coral Reef Conservation, Monitoring and Data Collection
• Shark Education, Reporting and Conservation
• Improved Management Policies and Marine Protection Efforts
• Environmental Training for Divers and Education Programs for Kids

Entering is easy. Just go to the Scuba Symphony Facebook Page and post your picture and proof of dontation to project aware.

Most months, the picture which receives the highest amount of ‘likes’ or votes wins, and if a tie occurs, then the judges will make the final decision. Sometimes, like last month, the judges will make the decision regardless of the amount of ‘likes’ a picture has.

For this month, the theme is Turtles, so get your best turtle pic, make your donation and get as many ‘likes’ as you can! Prizes are fairly substantial so any of you budding underwater photographers should give it a go; you can only win it if you’re in it!!

To make a donation to Project Aware, click here.

Porkie, is our resident Porcupine Pufferfish and can be found hanging out in Ko Haa Lagoon, one of the best dive sites in Lanta for shooting great underwater photo and video.

Porkie is so curious, he’ll happily accompany you for your whole dive, especially if you’re wearing yellow fins!

Porkie’s Fan-Links

• Watch the Meet Porkie Video
• Become a Porkie Fan on his Facebook Page at: facebook.com/porkie.lagoon
• Follow Porkie on Twitter at: twitter.com/porkie_lagoon

Read the article below:

Thailand: A fish with Facebook friends

By Kate Roff, 6:00 AM Tuesday Mar 22, 2011

Kate Roff submerges off the coast of Thailand to meet a local celebrity.

Off the tropical coast of Koh Lanta, Thailand, lives a fish named Porkie. It may sound like the beginning of a children’s story, but it’s true. “Porkie” is the name local divers have given a particular porcupine fish, adopted as a kind of wild pet by the dive companies operating in the beautiful marine park.

“Everyone knows him – he’s kind of a local celebrity. He’s a bit like a pet dog, he follows you around until you stop and give him some attention.”

Porkie is part of the puffer fish family and is easily recognised thanks to a small scar on his mouth, which divers believe must be from a lucky escape in a fishing incident.

So well-known, is Porkie, that he even has his own Facebook Page. While Porkie may be a favourite, the dive sites in the region have plenty of other species to showcase. We made a dive at Ko Haa, a cluster of six uninhabited islands off Ko Lanta, which boasts some of the world’s best underwater scenery.

There was so much to see just below the calm surface that our guide was able to pick and choose what she pointed out to divers.

She indicated a colourful banded sea snake to some divers while tactfully redirecting other, snake-shy tourists’ attention to some brilliant blue coral.

Our guide had been diving here for almost 11 years and expertly identified the stunning groups of damsel fish, angel fish, snapper, travelly, barracuda and clams that surrounded us as we meandered along in the warm (29C) water. She even knew where to find some tiny, juvenile black-tip reef sharks, which, regardless of sharks’ reputation, really were magnificent to watch.

Scubafish runs several dive programmes, all PADI-approved, including a one- to two-day “Discover Diving” course, which allows inexperienced divers to dive down to 12m with an instructor. This particular course has proved popular with travellers looking to avoid spending precious holiday time on a full diving course, but with the advantage of still getting underwater.

“A lot of others are getting onto PADI’s e-learning system too,” our guide said, “They do the theory online before they arrive in Thailand, and then get the do the practical diving side of things while they’re here.”

Unlike many diving operations, Scubafish focuses on keeping groups small, with constant attention supplied by enthusiastic staff. Liquid Lense, the company’s underwater photography and videography academy, also enables divers to try their hand at capturing some images of the things they see underwater on their tailor-made underwater photography and underwater videography courses.

Victoria MacKenzie runs the Liquid Lense Underwater Photography Courses, and believes the region offers some of the most diverse marine life in some of the clearest waters – ideal for trigger-happy photographers.

“We’ve recently been really lucky and had these huge manta rays here for over a month,” she gushed when asked about her preferred subject under water.

“But,” she confesses, “Porkie remains a favourite – he really does know how to pose for a photo.”

CHECKLIST

• Getting there: Qantas Airways has regular flights from Auckland to Phuket via Brisbane
• After flying into Phuket, a public ferry or speedboat can zip you off to Koh Lanta. Book them at the dock, or get your hotel to include a transfer.
• Where to stay: While Porkie may have the best accommodation under the water, above sea level try Baan Laanta Resort. This luxury resort is located in Kantiang Bay and is home to Scubafish and Liquid Lense (also the closest resort & dive centre to the dive sites at Ko Haa.
• What to do: Scubafish can be found at scubafish.com.

Porkie’s Fan-Links

• Watch the Meet Porkie Video
• Become a Porkie Fan on his Facebook Page at: facebook.com/porkie.lagoon
• Follow Porkie on Twitter at: twitter.com/porkie_lagoon

The Ko Lanta Pocket Guide paper version is available for free and can be picked up in locations all over Lanta and at main travel ports around Thailand. The guide includes information about the island, travel tips, adventures and activities, scuba diving and snorkelling, resorts, restaurants and bars and plenty of maps.

Download your free copy of the latest edition here:

• Lanta Pocket Guide

Start planning your holiday itinerary now! (courtesy of www.lantapocketguide.com)

Take a look at our Downloads Gallery for more free downloads from Liquid Lense.

Thailand has much to offer the visiting diver and snorkeller. There’s a vast range of exhilarating sites of many different kinds, providing something for everyone, regardless of their qualification levels or experience. Download the free Thailand Pocket Dive Guide to see which dive sites appeal to you.

• Pocket Dive Guide Thailand

Start planning your dive itinerary now! (courtesy of www.diveguidethailand.com)

Take a look at our Downloads Gallery for more free downloads from Liquid Lense.

Take a look at the selection of screensavers and wallpapers to bring the underwater world alive on your desktop – with all downloads available for free, you can have a lot of fun reliving your dive memories at home.

There’s also free guide books available to download if you’d like more information about Ko Lanta and the surrounding dive sites or diving in general in Thailand.

Take a look at the Liquid Lense guide to Underwater Photography and Videography Courses to see which course is best for you.

Liquid Lense Screensavers:

Turtle ScreenSaver – A slideshow collection of underwater images captured from the dive sites around Ko Lanta.

• Liquid Lense Turtle Screensaver for Mac
• Liquid Lense Turtle Screensaver for PC

Download the linked file and follow the instructions for installing as a screensaver on your computer and watch the underwater world come alive on your desktop!

Manta Ray Screensaver- A slideshow collection of Manta Rays taken from our bumper Manta season at world-class dive sites Hin Daeng & Hin Muang, this year.

• Liquid Lense Manta Screensaver for Mac
• Liquid Lense Manta Screensaver for PC

Download the linked file and follow the instructions for installing as a screensaver on your computer and watch the underwater world come alive on your desktop!

Nudibranch Screensaver – A slideshow collection of various Nudibranches taken from the different reefs around Ko Lanta.

• Liquid Lense Nudibranch Screensaver for Mac
• Liquid Lense Nudibranch Screensaver for PC

Download the linked file and follow the instructions for installing as a screensaver on your computer and watch the underwater world come alive on your desktop!

Guide Books

Ko Lanta Pocket Guide – everything you need to know about Ko Lanta in a pocket size!

The Ko Lanta Pocket Guide paper version is available for free and can be picked up in locations all over Lanta and at main travel ports around Thailand. The guide includes information about Ko Lanta island, travel tips, adventures and activities, scuba diving and snorkelling, resorts, restaurants and bars and plenty of maps.

Download your free copy of the latest edition here:

• Lanta Pocket Guide

Start planning your holiday itinerary now! (courtesy of www.lantapocketguide.com)

Pocket Dive Guide Thailand – Thailand’s complete scuba diving information source: dive centres, dive courses, dive equipment and dive sites.

Thailand has much to offer the visiting diver and snorkeller. There’s a vast range of exhilarating sites of many different kinds, providing something for everyone, regardless of their qualification levels or experience. Download the free Thailand Pocket Dive Guide to see which dive sites appeal to you.

• Pocket Dive Guide Thailand

Start planning your dive itinerary now! (courtesy of www.diveguidethailand.com)

Please read our latest reviews below and we invite you to write your own review of Liquid Lense to share with others who may be interested in visiting us here in Ko Lanta.

This exciting new addition to our range of rental cameras comes with a fantastic and easy to use Ikelite underwater housing and, it is just dying to get wet!

The Legria is Canon’s newest, smallest (about the size of a soda can!) and most ultra lightweight camcorder – among the smallest and lightest HD camcorders on the market. It has an integrated Flash Memory and what makes the HF21 stand out in the category of flash memory camcorders is its Dual Memory capability. You can capture video on the camcorder’s internal 64GB flash memory as well as directly to an SDHC Memory Card which can then be inserted into your computer or HDTV’s card reader slot for immediate viewing.

The advantages of flash memory go beyond the added recording time. As the memory has no moving parts, you’ll find a much quicker response time when you hit the record button. In addition, when you review your footage, it will come up much more quickly.

Even more impressively, the Legria HF21 allows you to record at up to 24Mbps, the highest bit rate in AVCHD format, for the highest quality image. This is enough for six hours of footage, which will be more than sufficient for most diving days.

There are four other quality modes, too. At the lowest setting, which operates at 5Mbits/sec, you can fit a whopping 24 hours of video. The top two quality modes use Full HD resolution, but the bottom three drop down to 1,440 x 1,080, like HDV.

The Legria HF21 delivers brilliant video and photos through a Canon exclusive 3.89 Megapixel CMOS Image Sensor and the advanced image processor, DIGIC DV III. Canon Exclusive features – such as the Genuine Canon 15x HD Video Lens, Genuine Canon Face Detection, Dynamic SuperRange Optical Image Stabilization and a host of new control and creative options – make it clear that it’s a Dual Flash Memory camcorder packed with the optical excellence, advanced image processing, superb performance and technological innovation for which Canon is famous.

In keeping with the HF21, the Ikelite housing is also compact and lightweight but is slightly negative in salt water for added stability. Molded from clear polycarbonate to provide seamless construction and corrosion proof performance, this “Clearly Superior” design provides full view of the camcorder, control functions, and assurance the system is safe up to depths of 200 feet (60 meters). The housing allows full control of the camera while underwater, meaning that all the functions can be accessed through the LCD viewfinder.

The most important feature is the ability to manually set the white balance while underwater. The easy to use Canon menu and Ikelite controls means that capturing the activity on the reef in all its brilliance is a breeze. However for those who just want to point and go, there is a built in underwater mode to keep things simple. Ikelites UR/Pro Color Filter provides extra color correction in tropical blue water with available sunlight up to 80 feet (24 meters).

Fancy giving this amazing camera a try? Then why not enroll in one of Liquid Lenses Underwater Videography Courses?

You’ll be able to experience all the features of this little camera whilst learning a fantastic (and rather addictive) new hobby!

With enough space to lose yourself, purpose-built dive boat – MV Ja Ru Pat is pure luxury. The large lower deck saloon boasts a beautiful wood designed interior with booth style seating, perfect for planning your days dives or for catching up on your PADI course work!!

Fans mounted above each booth ensure you are kept cool and comfortable throughout the day. The two roomy western style toilets, which are fitted out with sinks and mirrors, are also located on the lower deck next to the purpose built dive platform.

The spacious, shady upper deck is lined with comfy bench style seating and large tables, a breakfast bar with hot beverage making facilities and a dedicated medical room, everything you could want to make your dive trip as relaxing and enjoyable as possible.

Two huge wash-tanks, specifically for underwater camera systems, are conveniently located by the dive platform, ensuring that taking your underwater camera or video onboard couldn’t be easier.

For the ultimate in underwater imaging convenience, power points are available for charging batteries and the saloon area is the perfect spot for editing your images. And as Ja Ru Pat can reach all the best dive sites in the area, you are sure to want to bring your camera on board every time you dive!

So why dont you book an underwater photography or videography course with Liquid Lense, or dive trip with Scubafish and experience the luxury of Ja Ru Pat for yourself.

Earth Hour 2010 takes place at 8.30pm (local time) and is a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community throughout the world. It is a call to stand up, to take responsibility, to get involved and lead the way towards a sustainable future. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Europe to Asia to the Americas will stand in darkness. People across the world from all walks of life will turn off their lights and join together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common – our planet.

Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating. Global landmarks such as the, Sydney Harbour Bridge, The CN Tower in Toronto, The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Rome’s Colosseum, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour.

In March 2009, hundreds of millions of people took part in the third Earth Hour. Over 4000 cities in 88 countries officially switched off to pledge their support for the planet, making Earth Hour 2009 the world’s largest global climate change initiative.

So get involved and support the fight against global warming. Lets help to make this Earth Hour the most successful yet.

Turn on, Tune in, SWITCH OFF!!